Posts Tagged ‘Ford electric’

Ford is tentatively calling its first high-performance EV the Mach 1, though that could change, company officials told TheDetroitBureau.com.

Ford Motor Co. will nearly triple its investment in electrified vehicles to $11 billion, Executive Chairman Bill Ford announced Sunday night, and one of the first new all-electric models it plans to launch will be a high-performance crossover taking aim at the likes of the Tesla Roadster and the Porsche Mission E.

The Detroit automaker was one of the first to add electrified vehicles to its line-up, but it’s had little success with its initial offerings, industry analysts suggesting they didn’t offer either the range or performance that potential buyers want.

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Codenamed Mach 1 – a name lifted from a classic version of the Ford Mustang – the high-performance battery electric vehicle will debut in 2020, said Jim Farley, the automaker’s president of global markets, and will offer, “a whole new world…for our customers.”

“You’re starting to see the foundation of Ford’s bet on AVs (or autonomous vehicles),” said Jim Farley.

Ford plans to shift production of electric vehicles from a suburban Detroit plant to a factory in Mexico, a top company official said. That move will make room at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant for Ford to launch a new line of driverless vehicles that will be used by ride-sharing and delivery fleets.

The move could create some political headaches for the second-largest of the Detroit Big Three automakers. During his campaign for the White House, then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly bashed Ford’s plans to move small car production from Michigan to a second assembly plant it was building in Mexico. It ultimately scrubbed that facility and will shift production of the Focus model to China, instead.

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“You’re starting to see the foundation of Ford’s bet on AVs (or autonomous vehicles),” said Jim Farley, the president of global markets for Ford.

Ford Motor Co.’s new CEO Jim Hackett emerged from a 100-day review of the company’s challenges, capabilities and strategies late Tuesday afternoon to reveal a series of changes expected to yield billions of dollars in savings for the second-largest U.S. automaker while also driving up sales, revenues and margins by targeting new business opportunities in both the U.S. and overseas markets.

The former head of furniture maker Steelcase, Hackett said Ford has to prepare for the disruptions threatening the auto industry while using them to boost revenues. Joined at Ford headquarters in the Detroit suburbs by four of his top lieutenants, Hackett outlined a series of key goals and changes that will include, among other things a reduction in the number of sedans and conventional passenger cars while shifting capital to the development of more utility vehicles and electrified vehicles.

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Improvements in the product development and manufacturing process, meanwhile, will yield about $10 billion annual savings, said the 62-year-old Hackett. Acknowledging Ford had “fallen short on key targets,” the new CEO promised to deliver profit margins of at least 8%, up from the current 6.1%, a figure he said “simply (is) not good enough.”

Prior to joining Ford, Jim Hackett was Steelcase CEO and served as Interim U-Michigan Athletic Director.

While Ford has won praise for its push into autonomous vehicles, car-sharing and other futuristic mobility programs, it has also been criticized for a lack of new products today, something CEO Jim Hackett said the Detroit carmaker is addressing.

In an interview with the Associated Press, the former Steelcase chief executive – who took over at Ford following a management shake-up in May – say there is plenty “in the hopper,” though he declined to offer details on what new products are coming. Ford has revealed plans to revive its Bronco SUV and Ranger pickup nameplates, but critics say the carmaker also needs to revitalize its mainstream passenger car and luxury line-ups.

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Separately, Ford confirmed Thursday that it will pay up to $10.1 million to settle sexual and racial harassment allegations linked to its two Chicago-area factories. It also will add new training programs for workers at those plants.

Ford hopes to gain share in a fast-growing Chinese market for electrified vehicles.

Facing strict new emissions rules that favor a shift to battery power Ford Motor Co. plans to roll out an assortment of new electrified vehicles for the Chinese market.

Ford will have electrified versions of most of its offering in China by 2025, CEO Mark Fields announced, two weeks ahead of the Shanghai Motor Show. And it plans to start building them locally, as well.

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“The time is right for Ford to expand our EV lineup and investments in China,” Ford’s Fields said in a statement, adding that the second-largest U.S. automaker is “prioritizing our electrification efforts on China to reflect its importance.”

Ford is betting there's a market for even more fuel-efficient, hybrid-based pickups.

Ford is getting charged up about electric propulsion. Confirming what TheDetroitBureau.com first reported two years ago, the Detroit automaker will launch a hybrid version of its classic pony car, the Mustang.

Ford will also debut a hybrid version of its big F-150 pickup, introduce a pure battery-electric SUV with a range of at least 300 miles by 2020, and it plans to add a hybrid with autonomous driving capabilities, the maker said. The latter two models will go into production at the same, Flat Rock, Michigan assembly plant producing the Mustang.

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A $700 million investment at that facility, will make it “capable of producing high-tech electrified and autonomous vehicles,” CEO Mark Fields said during a news conference at the plant.

"More than 40% of our nameplates will be electrified," announced Ford CEO Mark Fields.

Ford Motor plans to invest $4.5 billion to add an array of new hybrids, plug-ins and battery-electric vehicles to its line-up by the end of the decade, CEO Mark Fields announced on Thursday.

The maker plans not only to add more battery-based vehicles but also to expand where it will offer those models, with two new produced, the plug-in C-Max Energi and the Mondeo Hybrid, entering the Chinese market in the coming months.

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By the end of the decade, said Fields, “More than 40% of our nameplates will be electrified,” up from 13% today, and the list will include “a full range” of the maker’s products, not just a limited selection like today. Where there are six battery-based products today, Ford will add 13 more by 2020.

Call it Supply-and-Demand 101. Ford Motor Co. is betting it can sell more battery cars if it has more places where potential customers can find them.

The Detroit maker plans to more than quadruple the number of outlets for its plug-based vehicles in the months ahead in an effort to boost demand. Ford ended 2012 with just 200 dealers certified to carry the three battery models, the Focus Electric, Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi. It expected to have 900 turned on by spring.

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That will not only increase the raw number of dealers but also expand their footprint beyond initial launch markets like New York and California.

“The newest approach is based on a key market coverage strategy to ensure we have good representation on a national basis to meet customer demand,” said Ford Field Operations Manager Paul Russell.